Philippines says actions of China air force ‘illegal’ and ‘reckless’
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
A Chinese coast guard ship is seen from a fishing boat at Scarborough Shoal, which China seized in 2012 after a tense stand-off with the Philippines.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Aug 11 condemned Chinese air force actions over waters of the South China Sea claimed by both countries, calling the actions “unjustified, illegal and reckless”.
Manila and Beijing accused each other on Aug 10 of disrupting their militaries’ operations around Scarborough Shoal. It was the first incident since Mr Marcos took office in 2022 in which the Philippines has complained of dangerous actions by Chinese aircraft, as opposed to navy or coast guard vessels.
Two Chinese air force aircraft undertook a “dangerous manoeuvre” and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine Air Force (PAF) plane over Scarborough Shoal on Aug 8, according to the Philippine military.
Manila said the Chinese actions put the lives of its crew in danger, but that the patrol plane returned safely to base.
The Chinese actions were “unjustified, illegal and reckless, especially as the PAF aircraft was undertaking a routine maritime security operation in Philippine sovereign airspace”, Mr Marcos said in a statement.
China defended its operations on Aug 10, saying it “organised naval and air forces to lawfully... (drive) away” the Philippine plane, following “repeated warnings”.
“We sternly warn the Philippines to immediately stop its infringement, provocation, distortion and hype,” said a statement from the Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army, adding that “China has indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Island (Scarborough Shoal) and adjacent waters”.
On Aug 11, Mr Marcos urged China to act responsibly both in the seas and in the skies.
“We have hardly started to calm the waters, and it is already worrying that there could be instability in our airspace,” Mr Marcos said in a statement posted by the Presidential Communications Office on the social media platform X.
Dr Chester Cabalza, president of the Manila-based think-tank International Development and Security Cooperation, said China’s actions were a “show of force” in response to Manila’s participation in multi-nation drills that promote freedom of navigation and overflight.
“After a series of grey zone tactics at sea, we may probably see dog fights up in the sky if China continues its growing antagonism in the Philippines’ air and defence zones,” Dr Cabalza said.
The incident follows a series of increasingly tense confrontations
In June, the Philippine military said one of its sailors lost a thumb in a confrontation off Second Thomas Shoal
Filipino fishermen aboard their wooden boats sail past a Chinese coast guard ship near Scarborough Shoal.
PHOTO: AFP
Beijing has blamed the escalation on Manila and maintains its actions to protect its claims are legal and proportional.
Following the Second Thomas Shoal clash, the two countries agreed on a “provisional arrangement”
The Chinese air force action on Aug 8 came a day after China carried out a combat patrol
Scarborough Shoal, a triangular chain of reefs and rocks, is 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
The Philippines said on Aug 11 it will continue to patrol its exclusive economic zone, defined by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as waters beyond a coastal nation’s territorial seas over which it has sovereign rights to explore and exploit natural resources.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines reaffirm our determination to conduct regular surveillance operations in line with international law,” Colonel Francel Padilla, spokeswoman for the military, said in an interview with local radio station DZBB.
“We will safeguard our country’s sovereignty and security over our maritime domain,” she added.
AFP, REUTERS
